Susan B. Anthony

Today marks the birth of Clarinda Howard Nichols in 1810, whom Susan B. Anthony hailed as a “large-hearted, brave, faithful woman” to whom the “women of Kansas are indebted for many civil rights they have as yet been too apathetic to exercise.” January 25 in 1887 also marks the first time the full U. S. Senate voted on what was then the Sixteenth Amendment to enfranchise women. Of the 16 senators for voted for the amendment (34 against, 25 absent), the ever optimistic SBA remarked: “We rejoice in this evidence that our demand is forcing itself upon the attention and action of Congress, and that when a new Congress shall have assembled, with new men and new ideas, we may hope to change this minority into a majority.”